Tom Brady Once Asked Recently Retired Tony Gonzalez: 'Think You Can Still Play?'

Tony Gonzalez retired after the 2013 season. With 270 games, 1,325 receptions (second most all time) and 111 touchdown catches (seventh all time), his NFL road had ended.

But there was a temptation to re-consider after a workout with Tom Brady and an intriguing question from the Patriots quarterback.

"Tom, I've done a private workout with him and it was clicking," Gonzalez told ThePostGame on Thursday from Radio Row in Minneapolis. "It would have been beautiful.

"I had retired, and he had come to LA and he needed somebody to throw to, and he called me up and said, 'Hey, do you mind throwing with me?' Actually, it was cool because I never knew this, but I think you're seeing it now on that 'Tom vs. Time' on Facebook, where you're seeing him going against Tom House, the throwing coach. He's got a nutritionist, he's got a specialist here, there's like five, six guys on the field all working on the tiniest details and it helps you understand, this is why Tom is so great.

"And he'd throw me a ball and the ball would be right here at my chest as I'm coming out of the break and the ball is right here: 'Perfect, right here, in my bread book.' Then I’d get back to him and he would say, 'Hey, I'll get the ball a little bit further out this way.' And I'm like, 'Tom it doesn’t matter to me, just put it in my area.' And he'd be like dead serious, he'd go, 'No, no, it makes a difference. If I put the ball outside of you, that's an extra three yards on the yards after the catch.' That's how detailed Tom Brady is and I've never played with anybody like that."

"Then he was like, 'Hey, you think you can still play?' I had just retired, but I had made up my mind, obviously. But it was very tempting to say, 'You know what? I wonder if I could come back and play for the New England Patriots, but obviously I decided against it.'"

If Brady brought this workout up to Bill Belichick, the coach did not pursue any further.

"There was no courting," Gonzalez said with a laugh. "They didn't need me. I think they won the Super Bowl anyways that year. They've got a pretty good tight end, like you said, with ol' Gronkowski."

Maybe it's not too late.

Gonzalez spoke to ThePostGame on behalf of his sponsor, Avocados from Mexico.